Syria: Hizbollah recruitment surge as sectarian conflict spreads

Bomb attacks by Sunni extremists in Lebanon have seen an increase in volunteers for the Shia militia that supports President Assad

Bomb attacks by Sunni extremists in Lebanon have seen an increase in volunteers for the Shia militia that supports President Assad Photo: AP

By Ruth Sherlock in Hermel

8:00PM GMT 02 Mar 2014

Hizbollah, the militant Lebanese Shia group, is seeing a surge in recruitment as sectarian conflict spreads from the Syrian civil war, members of the group have told the Telegraph.

A spate of car bomb attacks against Shia towns and villages in Lebanon has caused a spike in the number of young men volunteering to fight for the group in Syria as the minority sect increasingly sees its own survival as tied to that of President Bashar al-Assad.

"All the men from this area are getting guns and asking to fight in Syria, whether they are already members of Hizbollah or not," said one supporter of the militia, who asked not to be named. "We are in a critical situation and we have to fight for the sake of the Shia."

He spoke sitting in a cafe in Hermel, a town of mainly Shia inhabitants in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa valley, that has long been a bastion for the secretive paramilitary group.

Once a sleepy country haunt, Hermal today has the feel of a town at war.

Sandbags are piled around the town's most popular cafe, the owner's effort to protect his customers should any suicide bomber target his front entrance. Cars with blacked out windows and no licence plate - the wagons of Hizbollah intelligence, are everywhere, roaring through the narrow streets or tucked down alleyways, watching passers by. Nobody dallies in the street for long.

Three car bombs have exploded in the small town in recent weeks, the first attacks of the kind on the town as far back as residents can remember.

On a recent weekend a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Lebanese army checkpoint at the entrance to the town, killing two soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 18 people. Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack.

"You step out of your home and you don't know if you are going to live or die. A bomb might kill you when you are on your way to the shop for groceries. Nowhere is safe," said Ibrahim, 67, a retired engineer.

Pitting an almost exclusively Sunni opposition against a Shia regime, the war in Syria is fuelling a dangerous sectarian rancour across the whole region. It is re-opening the wounds of an ancient schism - dating back 1400 years - between the two Islamic doctrines, that for puritanical extremists of both faiths, is now reason enough to massacre the other with impunity.

The attacks are prompting both sides to withdraw into their communities, and rally behind their fighters.

Two Hizbollah members separately said there had been increase in the number of men willing to fight in Syria: "first they need to be given proper training. Only if they are good men do we let them join our ranks," said one, asking not to be named.

Thousands of fighters from have travelled to neighbouring Syria to fight alongside government troops in the last two years.

Analysts say that Iran, and its proxy militias are an increasingly vital crutch to the regime's embattled troops. Offering intelligence and logistical support, they have in the last year turned the course of the war to President Assad's favour.

"We have to protect ourselves, and have a duty to be in Syria," Ahmad Jawhari, 26, said, speaking from inside the black pavilion in Hermel set up to receive guests who have come to mourn his father's death. "If we don't go to them, then they will come to us. If we hadn't attacked, the Sunni Wahabi extremists would attack us more strongly."

Mr Jawhari's father, Mohammed, was killed last month when a suicide bomber exploded himself at the petrol station that Mohammed managed in Hermel.

Fresh "martyr" posters - portraits of men who have died fighting in Syria or as victims of attacks in Lebanon are now dotted across Hermel. White paper carnations swing from trees outside many of Hermel's homes, a sign of mourning for the recent death of a loved one.

Ahmad said: "Most of my friends now are asking to go to Syria. Hizbollah doesn't let everyone go, you need to be a trained fighter. I work in a hospital, but after the death of my father I wish Hizbollah would choose me to fight in Syria."

As the first fighters began streaming across the border to Syria in 2012, some of Hizbollah's supporters were unhappy. Hizbollah was born as a guerrilla movement designed to fight Israel, not fellow Muslims.

One male teacher in Hermel in his late fifties, who did not want to be named, was back then a quietly outspoken opponent to the operations. This fight, he argued, was not part of the 'resistance', the movement against Israeli occupation. It was not defending Lebanon, but getting embroiled in the mess of another country's dictator.

When the Telegraph met him again last week, all criticisms of Hizbollah were bygones.

Dissenters, he said, no longer had the privilege to question and criticise.

Now the Shia needed Hizbollah.

He spoke sitting at a table in an open air restaurant, beside the Orontos river, which, just a few miles down stream flows across the border into Syria. The tranquil seen was interrupted by shouting from the nearby highway and the air became acrid with smoke.

A group of youths had set fire to tyres, blocking the road as a protest because they wanted Hizbollah, and not the Lebanese national army to man the main checkpoint to enter the town. In times of peace, Hermel's Shia residents were happy to abide by the rules of the Lebanese national government, but, when feeling endangered they immediately reverted to militia they trust to protect them.

"The war is here now. It is across the borders and in out areas. We have to protect ourselves," the teacher said. "Believe me, now I would have no hesitation in sending even my own children to fight in Syria."